Earendil Labs and Genentech Sign Bispecific Antibody Collaboration Worth More Than $1.5 Billion
核心洞察
Earendil Labs (搜索) will receive a $55 million upfront payment under a research collaboration with Genentech to discover and develop bispecific antibodies in oncology.
Total potential deal value, including development, regulatory and sales milestones plus tiered royalties, exceeds $1.5 billion, with the transaction subject to customary closing conditions.
Earendil leads antibody discovery and research through early clinical development for pre-agreed target combinations, after which Genentech takes over global development and commercialization.
Earendil Labs (搜索) has entered a research collaboration with Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, to discover and develop multiple therapeutic bispecific antibody programs in oncology. Under the agreement, the Wilmington, Delaware-based AI-powered biotechnology company will receive a $55 million upfront payment, with total potential collaboration value including upfront, development, regulatory and sales milestone payments in excess of $1.5 billion. Earendil Labs is also eligible to receive tiered royalties on net product sales. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions.
Division of Responsibilities
Earendil Labs (搜索) will lead antibody discovery and research through the early clinical development stage for antibody programs directed to certain pre-agreed target combinations. Genentech will assume responsibility for subsequent global clinical development and commercialization of antibody programs arising from the collaboration. Specific milestone values, royalty tiers and the number of programs were not disclosed.
Rationale for Bispecifics in Oncology
Zhenping Zhu, MD, PhD, President and co-CEO of Earendil Labs (搜索), framed the collaboration around persistent gaps in cancer (搜索) treatment. "Despite many major advances in targeted cancer therapies and immunotherapies, there still exists a significant unmet medical need as many cancer patients develop drug resistance or relapse," he said. "Tumor growth and metastasis depend on multiple and interactive biological pathways, making it especially challenging for therapies directed at a single mechanism to achieve durable benefit. Bispecific antibodies offer the potential to address complementary disease biology within a single medicine."
Boris L. Zaïtra, Head of Roche Corporate Business Development, said bispecific antibodies "have reframed how we approach treatment precision in oncology," adding that in cancers where patients face high relapse rates and limited options, the modality supports the company's commitment to targeted therapies.
Platform and Partnering Strategy
Jian Peng, PhD, CEO of Earendil Labs (搜索), said the company is "building an AI-driven high-throughput biology platform that effectively integrates AI directly into biologics research and development, from predictive protein modeling and generative protein design to rapid experimental validation." He added that combining the platform with Genentech's oncology drug development expertise is intended to accelerate creation of differentiated bispecific antibodies.
Earendil describes its platform as integrating machine learning, generative protein engineering and high-throughput experimental techniques to optimize functionality, manufacturability and developability of protein-based biologics with first-in-class and/or best-in-class potential. The company operates alongside an affiliate, Helixon Therapeutics (搜索).
The Genentech agreement extends a broader external-partnering strategy around Earendil's AI-enabled biologics platform. In January 2026, the company entered a multi-program collaboration with Sanofi to discover bispecific antibodies for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, while a separate 2025 agreement gave Sanofi worldwide rights to HXN-1002 (搜索) and HXN-1003 (搜索), two Earendil-discovered bispecifics for autoimmune and inflammatory bowel diseases. Earendil also raised $787 million in March 2026 to expand its AI-driven biologics platform and advance a pipeline that the company said had generated more than 40 programs.